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9th July 2012, Estadio Lasesarre, Barakaldo - Unknown Italo-Dutch manager LucasVolman is hired newly-promoted by Barakaldo C.F on a two year contract. He is estimated to be receiving £1.400 a week. He stated his intention to pursue a Basque-only policy, but also stated he would allow no-Basque Spanish players already at the club to stay.

Club Situation

Founded in 1917, Barakaldo can boast of three Segunda B wins (1980, 1998 and 2002). The club is fully professional and possesses Adequate ratings in its training facilities, youth facilites and junior coaching as well as an Average youth recruitement network and fairly basic corporate facilities.

I've been given a £15k transfer budget and a £27k wage budget of which around £15k is currently being spent. We also have a 4-year kit sponsorship deal at £125k per season and the club's bank balance is currently £150k.

Barakaldo's stadium is Nuevo Estadio Lasesarre (shortened to just Lasesarre) which holds 8000 people of which 6000 are seated.

The club has rivalries with Bilbao Ath., Gernika and Lemona of which only Lemona is currently in our division.

Initial Squad Situation

Goalkeeper

Carlos Sanchez is the undisputed starter here, but at 34 he may not have too many years in him. Iker Arrillaga and Ander Igartua are the backups here, with Txemi being on his way out.

Rightback

Attacking fullback Nacho Lopez is the best player in this position, though Eriz Goiria is a valid backup and looks to have the potential to be as good as Nacho. Veteran Joseba Sampedro will probably leave.

Leftback

A very weak position, Iban Espinosa and Joseba Arino are the only players capable of playing there and they're not all that good.

Centerback

Nacho Neira is the Best player here, but there's no clear partner for him the closest being 31-year-old Seco. There's an excellent youth prospect in the U19's team, however, in Aritz Garmendia. Muxi is likely to be on his way out and the future of Xabier Garces is uncertain.

Defensive Midfield

Eneko is one of the stars of the team and will be first choice here with Alex Diaz as backup. Guinean prospect Abdoul Keita will probably leave.

Central Midfield

Ricardo Pennella and Francisco Javier Medina will initially start here, but Jon Ander Garrido, Carlos Nazabal and Xabier Ramos all have the potential to surpass them. The biggest prospect, though is Enrique Martinez.

Right Wing

Fernando is the star right winger, while backups Quino and Andoni Illarramendi make this into one of the strongest positions.

Left Wing

Another very strong position with Aimar Gulin and Imanol Mentxaka being equal in ability. The latter will probably preferred due to his bigger potential.

Striker

The best striker at the club is by far Carlos Alvarez. Behind him in the pecking order are Jon Martin, Txutxi, Imanol Etxabe, Carenote and David Camino. Good depth but a few of them will have to leave to lower the wage budget and avoid disputes due to players being dropped.

Was near end of season sitting top and promotion was certain just the Championship was up for grabs. Try to load my save and it's corrupt haven't had rolling saves on this year least I will from now on

League/Graph(Finished 5th)
Despite finishing 5th i was a little disappointed as i really though i could have made 2nd, but the last 4 or 5 games really made a difference, unfortunately not in a good way for me, i ended up moving to 5th, but i'm still pretty pleased.

Play-offs: (Lost in Semi-Final)
Reaching the play-offs at all was an achievement really, but i was actually slightly disappointed to lose in the first game. It was over 2 legs, we lost the first one 0-2 and i thought i'd never get back into it. Half time in the 2nd leg i was 0-2 up and only needed a goal to win, unfortunately the only goal that came was against me.

Turkish Cup: (Lost in 5th Round)
Thought i did quite well in the cup, but a Premier League side knocked me out. The board only wanted me to enjoy the experience of being in it anyway.

TransfersThought i did quite well only bringing in 3 players, they all did fairly well for the club, but Serge Gueï was vital scoring 20 goals all season for the club. I'm only allowed 3 foreign players though, so it's more Turkish players next season.

Overall
Overall it was a surprising season as i wasn't expecting to get anywhere near the top 10 never mind top 5. I think next season i need to get rid of a couple of players and now that we actually have money, i might have more wages to offer to get better players in.

I've been doing pretty well with Acqui in C2/B. In fact it's it's now April and Acqui holds 2nd place in the league, so straight promotion is within reach.

One negative thing is that the club is now about £312K in debt. I checked where the money is going, and noticed that "other" is the second highest expence. Expenditure other consists of a few things including travel expences. I think IRL C2 (or Lega Pro Seconda Divisione) A/B are geographically based with more northern teams in group A and teams from more southern parts of the country in group B. In FM12 this doesn't seem to be true after the 1st season. I manage Acqui, a norther team, and for some reasoin I'm in B group with an assortment of northern and southern teams. Group A is the same way. I suppose teams would not be doing so much expensive travelling if the groups were implemented properly?

A season of misery in Novukeznetsk, Siberia, as FC Metallurg-Kuzbass we narrowly avoided relegation. The First Division in Russia is brutally unforgiving, with 2 games a week (and a long winter break) and strict foreigner requirements (3 foreigners allowed) making the dearth of Russian talent a real problem. Playing a defensive 4-1-4-1 all season, I hung on for dear life with ties or counter attack/set piece goals. The foreign talent was solid; but the Russian talent pathetic. Lots of players being picked up across Eastern Europe on free transfers, but not enough Russians and that will be a priority this upcoming off-season. I also need to offload some players as I signed to many young players who are eating up my 20k wage budget. I need to sell players to cut down on wages and g

We were predicted to finish 20th so I should be happy with finishing 10th (we were the Nationals overachievers f the season) but I'm sort of disappointed. Apart from a couple of 6-1 defeats (hence our poor GD) we played well in most of the games, and were actually only 2 points off the promotion places at one point. The run of 7 games without a win all but ended our promotion dreams though, hope to improve on that next season.

We got through the 6th round easily, winning 7-0 at lower league club SA Thiers. With over 100 lower league teams still in the cup at the 7th round it was only our luck to be drawn away at a Ligue 2 side, Châteauroux, and we were 2 minutes away from taking them to extra time with a good performance.

Obviously with our budget I had to keep it to freebies, but bought some players good enough for my targets of avoiding relegation. I also bought in some West Africans later in the season so hope they can make an impact next season.

Johann Rouault - Report - Excited by this prospect, report says at 16 he will be our best right back and could become a good Ligue 1 player in the future. Managed to get him on a 3 year comtract.Jean-Jacques Angan - Looks outstanding, the only worry I have is his low strength.Christian Koné - Another Ivorian, the advantage of bringing these in is that they can be on low wages as we really need to cut the wage bill.

Finances - Not looking too good, however during the close season I have cut the wage bill from £15k pw to under £10k pw, my highest paid player now is £600 pw after letting the higher paid players leave.

In other news:

Our current stadium holds 3,500 supporters, which is more than enough as last season the average attendance was 672. So what do the board do, they decide to build a new stadium. They have arranged a bank loan of £3.8m, paying back £31k per month until May 2028!! The new stadium will be imaginatively called 'La Vitréenne FC stadium' and the capacity will be 9,553.

Champions, but it was a fairly close run thing; not because we did badly, but because for much of the season Berwick were doing evenbetter. They were top of the table until 9 games to go. The deciding factor wasthat we beat them in all four matches between the two teams, including thepenultimate game of the season which secured us the title.

After 15 games we had already secured more points than the previous season, where of course a Vikeologist-less team slumped to the bottomof the table, as yet unaware of the glories this ignominy would produce. I signed 24 players (+ another 4 on loan), including FrancisJeffers who I sold at Christmas after 1 goal (a penalty) in 12 games. 4 of theplayers that I inherited were still in the matchday squad by the end of theseason, which was a bit of a surprise, since I expected to have to replaceeverybody. They are the worst players in the team though, and will all be released in the summer at the end of their contracts.Finances – Good. Frankly the good players that came in are basically on the same wage as the rubbish players I rid myself of. I made some money from pre-season friendlies, and ran at a minimal loss for the rest of the season. I ended the season way under my wage budget. I played 8 friendlies, which was about what was needed to get the team fit given that there were new and unfit players coming in throughout. I worry about this being a ‘cheat’, but I only play teams that appear as options when you arrange a friendly. If I left it to my Ass Man to arrange friendlies, I don’t think he’d arrange enough. I’d like to think that this results in a realistic situation, as I want to play by lower leaguerules throughout the challenge. In any case, my healthy finances are basically due to not paying silly wages. Next Season and Beyond – Next season shouldn’t pose any real problems either. Most, if not all of the 2nd division sides are semi-professional as well, and I sort of expect to walk to the title again. Eventually though we’re going to need to find the money to upgrade everything, employ more coaches and eventually become professional which will result in a big wage bump. It’s frustrating that the players aren’t really improving on part-time schedules, but I expect all of this can wait a year until next season when (potential hubris-alert) we’ll be in Division 1. On these forums a lot of people say that they want to survive the season after promotion, but I’m fairly confident.

Of course, there may be unforeseen problems. The players may all want to leave for bigger clubs. The club may want to go professional too soon. My star player may discover that I’m shagging his girlfriend. I think the biggest potential problem is that we ground share with Stenhousemuir, who we’ll now be in the same division as. I doubt that there’s any rule against this, but I may get an unpleasant surprise.

The dangers of the playoffs were revealed as Berwick (who dominated the Third Division alongside us) lost the Playoff final to Alloa (who fnished 25 points behind them in the league). They were winning on away goals until Alloa scored in the third minute of extra time in the second leg.

I'm just mentioning this as a Haloween story for all of you about to go into playoffs in your division. I'm sure it won't happen to you.

Great season Vikeologist, If you think that's bad for the playoffs in Scotland just think how the winners of the Spanish Second Division B leagues feel. Four winners and yet only one of them is guaranteed to go up as the four winners play off against each other with the losing 3 going into a further set of games with none of them guaranteed to go up as they play teams in playoff spots from the four divisions.

Berty don't be too disappointed as 10th in your first season is a great finish.

Expecting a fierce competition between Athletic Bilbao and Barakaldo. Will there be enough good Basque players for 2 La liga teams?

I'll have to get there first, but so far the signings have been very exciting. I absolutely love the fact that new scouts come with a list of reports.

Charlesbeams - Good season, not going straight up will allow you to strengthen the team and be more prepared for when you'll be facing Fenerbahce and Galatasaray.Drake44444 - That was close! Well done on surviving in the circumstances you described.berty1978 - Some great players you have there. Stupid board as well though.Vikeologist - Well done on getting promoted as champions.

Could someone tell me what the rules are on loaning players from pre-existing feeder club arrangements? I have Athletic as a parent club and while I haven't loaned anyone from them they have interested players that would easily get into my first team.

Ok, I'm half way through the next season and just had a bizarre situation. Just lost narrowly 2-1 at arguably the best team in the National, Stade Lavallois (I hit the woodwork 3 times including the inside of the post, also had a clear penalty turned down). The significance of that is they are still our parent club and if we had held on to win the match we would have overtaken them in the league. This brings me to a question, has anyone here been in the league above their parent club? I would guess then the affiliation would be cancelled but still funny.

Also an update on our hot prospect Johann Rouault - Report - Now an accomplished left back, and has played very well so far in the league. My Ass. Man thinks he can become a leading Ligue 1 right-back, got him on a contract until 2016, so hopefully he'll either stay or we'll sell him for mega £££££.

Could someone tell me what the rules are on loaning players from pre-existing feeder club arrangements? I have Athletic as a parent club and while I haven't loaned anyone from them they have interested players that would easily get into my first team.

As far as I know there is no rule against loaning players, though some people prefer not to, it's up to the specific player.

My Città di Pontedera squad is currently going through an injury crisis, and it's pure luck we are secound in the league. Signed a new DC and an AML to boost my squad so my wage budget is now really concerning. Hopefully atleast one of these scenarios will happen: Our luck continues ( currently been awarded 8 penalties in the first 10 matches of the season), I can sell one of my players for a neat fee, or I can earn cash from a good cup run.

F.C. Pampilhosa 2012/13 End of Season UpdatePart-time Pampilhosa better than expected

Well my first season at the helm has proven this challenge is going to be very difficult with this particular club, but more of challenge = more satisfaction when we finally make it, however many years down the line that might be ! With no official transfer budget and a wage budget of £3k per week my first priority was a new goalkeeper. I had to adjust the budgets to buy Tiago Martins for £50k but he was absolutely worth it and visibly improved as our season progressed. He was so good that by the end of the season he even got a call up as 3rd choice keeper for the Portugal Under-21 squad. Hoping he will have a long and successful career with us.

Yuksel Sariyar - Experienced centre midfielder, approaching the end of his career but his experience is needed to influence the youngsters.

Lucas - Another experienced player in the centre of the park. He was ok but did nothing amazing.

Gleydson - My new CB tore a hamstring 6 games into the season and missed the rest of it. But at 23 he has time to recover and come back stronger.

Marco Aurelio - A quite average looking winger but has a great attitude as is always willing to learn.

Joao Viana - Also injured for all but 6 games last season, the 21yr old right back looks like he has the potential to make the position his own and contribute much.

Bruno Gaspar - Was intended to be cover for Viana but ended up as first choice due to the injury. Solid and reliable.

Valdinho - A favourite with the fans already, scored 6 goals in 10 games including the clubs first hatrick. Always seems to be in the right place at the right time and provides quality service to the strikers.

Ricardo Catarino - My other new winger alternates flanks with Valdinho, he's starting to show some promising form.

Season details

The season started well with us picking up some unexpected results and climbing to second but a dramatic dip in form in the middle of the season saw us drop back as low as 8th before a strong finish got us up to finish 4th. The dip in form was completely my fault thanks to a team meeting in December where I completely misjudged the mood and ruined the team morale. A lesson for next season !

The midseason change of ownership did nothing for our finances and with only 1,000 capacity on part-time money I don't expect us to have any money any time soon.

Aims for next season :
Challenge for promotion

Code:

CLUB HISTORY
Season Team League Finished Notes
2011-2012 FC Pampilhosa 2nd Division Central 4th

Romanista1994 - Good Luck with Barakaldo, looks like a club with lots of potentialCharlesbeams - Excellent season finishing 5th... Guei is the kind of striker I'd love to be able to find for my teamDrake44444 - Well done on staying up !berty1978 - Good solid season. Wierd decision on the new stadium, hope you aren't stuffed financially because of it.vikeologist - Nice job getting promotion first season - good luck next year.

Nice to see you all and welcome to Northwest Italy. I've taken over U.S.D. Novese, a small provincial club from the town of Novi Ligure.

Novese have a strange history. It is largely devoid of any real note or success. Aside from winning an Italian Championship in 1921/22 (hence the 1922 that adorns the badge). However this wasn't a legitimate Serie A title but rather the FIGC title - won in a season where the Italian Federation was split and had a spin-off championship. See here for more info.

Stadium:Stadio Costante Girardengo
The stadium is found at the bottom of a road called the Avenue of Rememberence and is named in honor of a former Italian road cycling legend. Fair enough. 3,500 (3,000 seats).

Other Info:

Rivals: Acqui, Derthona
Ave Ticket Price: £6
Ave Season Ticket: £67

In terms of game-setup, it's all as recommended in the opening post (including the addition of players from Italy and top clubs around the world.

Just been through the thread and got an idea on who is playing as who now, seems Spain and Portugal are the most popular, Turkey and Russia have a few players also. Only me and blackdevil playing in France, any more takers?

LLR - Fantastic opening posts and a good opening season in Parla.Charlesbeams - You certainly are storming through the seasons. Unlucky on losing out on the play-offs, better luck next time.
Good luck iacovone

I'm still jealous of people who can get promotion first time round, though I have improved on my poor showing on FM11 already.

iacovone - welcome back!! great to see you here again! Italy isn't quite the same without you (apologies to those playing in Italy but those with history of the thread will know what i mean... ) looking forward to a new chapter with Novese.PRDH - funny you should mention players in Germany......Drake44444 - that was a seriously tough season! hopefully you will be able to further rebuild this summer and push on next season.berty1978 - Good season there although the new stadium is a little weird. did the club own the old one?vikeologist - congratulations on your first time promotion. good luck next season. there isn't much of a step up so i think you'll kick on towards a double promotion...

Thanks rlipscombe, good to see you here! And potentially in Germany...?

I've spent about 2 hours and made it through half a month so far at Novese .

Having to be really particular with who I sign as players on full time contracts (as opposed to the part time contracts all retained players are on) come at about an average of £450 p/w! Which for a club with a budget at just £8,000 p/w immediately becomes an issue! I'm having to move on a lot of players from the club, as (a) they're crap and (b) they want a full time contract. NO CHANCE AMICO!

Stuart Brawls, Seregno 2013-14, Season 2, Serie C2/B

League
A great year for Seregno. We started off well enough as we maintained a position in the playoff spots for the much of the first half of the season and even reached the automatic promotion spots towards halfway through the season. I think we did hit top spot at 1 point but due to Poggibonsi playing before me it only shows as a continued second place on the league graph. We did seam to place a lot of the top teams together at the start of each half of the season which meant that our run in was much easier than most teams. I felt that in the first half of the season, especially, we were drawing too many games as we seemed incapable of taking all our chances and putting games to bed as our opposition came back and levelled the score.

With a few tactical tweaks and the signing of 2 key players in January, we were able to push on in the second half of the season and we secured promotion with a game to spare. In the final league game we went in 1 point behind Campobasso who had beat us at their ground earlier on in the season. But credit to the fixture generators as our final game was actually at home to Campobasso and was therefore a League winners decider. My players were really up for this match but the Campobasso players seemed to be just happy with promotion as they didn't show up for this game and as a result we had so many shots while they only had 3. However despite this we couldn't score as we wasted all the opportunities that arose until finally in the 91st minute our January sigining Giovanni Kyeremateng scored what proved to be the league winning goal. Final League Match

This then put us in the Serie C2 Super Cup match against the winners of Serie C2/A which just happened to be against recently relegated Monza who are apparently just 3 miles down the road from Seregno, 2 legged derby match to finish the season! A comfortable 1-0 home win with a goal from Spampatti put us in a good position as we went in to the second away leg. This was a much closer encounter and could have gone either way but just before half time up popped Giovanni Kyeremateng again to put us on our way to another 1-0 win and we therefore won the Serie C2 Super Cup 2-0 on aggregate.

Serie C CupGroup Stage ¦ Fixtures
Again i made it out of the group stage of the competition but this time as group winners and again i went out in the first round. I was happy with our wins in the group stage but as i was drawn against Vicenza from a higher division and with several key league games around this fixture i took the decision to field a weakened side. So i wasn't expecting to get any further in this competition as it proved as Vicenza beat us 3-1.

Players

Emanuele Bianchi - Our number one keeper who had a very good season and was key in several games ensuring that we scored points. Pietro Morabito - Young keeper who kept the bench warm for the season. Only played in the 3-1 defeat in the Serie C Cup to higher division Vicenza. Not happy and has requested a transfer.Valentino Ostieri - Excellent Season and much improved compared to last season. Heavily relied on at right back. Ended the season with the highest rating at the club and was also named in the leagues team of the year.Giovanni Iodice - A rock at the heart of our defence who could also be relied upon to play at DM. Another excellent season which surely helped to our defensive record in the league. Fabrizio Carboni - Another DC who was used as a squad player and was effective when he played but perhaps less so than Gonnelli.Lorenzo Gonnelli - Young centre back who was used to cover injuries and during fixture congestions. Played very well when called upon. Stefano Bertolini - Youngster who was only really used as a sub for Ostieri at right back, as he is competent at this position, during periods when we had games a few days apart to ensure Ostieri was fit enough to play in the next game.Carlo Scalera - Solid defender who played mainly as a DC but more as a left back as the season wore on as i felt the defence was stronger with him in this position.Daniel D'Isidoro - One of our main left backs who played half of the league games but i was looking for something more than he could provide in this position.Lorenzo Rota - Young left back who was used as cover.Giacomo Agelli - Used as a backup DL but did well when called upon.Francesco Giraldi - Played in either DMC/MC and played in the majority of games but was hoping for that bit more from him.Guerino Stella - Young DMC/MC who played in the majority of games and did very well. Just wish his tackling was better as it might have resulted in less yellow cards and of course the 1 red he picked up.Francesco Grazia - Young player with not a lot of potential but i needed to call upon to play in a couple of games. Was very surprised how well he did as he got an assist and goal a 25 yard winner in another match. Davide Arigo - Davide was as effective as he was last year but he still had a good season and contributed with 6 goals and 4 assists.Sacha Cagliani - Youngster who was mainly used as a squad player used both in midfield and at right back. Contributed with a few goals and assists.Alessandro Pradi - Our most used left winger who seems to be becoming more and more out of his depth. He couldn't hit a barn door as he spurned so many good opportunities to score. His contract will not be renewed.Mario Rebecchi - Signed in the January transfer window to add more quality to our midfield. Mario proved to be worth the wage expense as he put in several very important performances including 3 goals and 4 assists which helped us greatly in the league.Dario Colombi - Young winger who was brought in during the summer as i struggled to bring in a quality player in this position. He was used occasionally but maybe his time is over as i feel the next level will be too much for him. Nicola Rossini - Youngster who was used to keep the bench warm when required. Daniele Nohman - Used more early on in the season and mainly consigned to the bench from then on. Did contribute a couple of goals which secured us some valuable points but i wont be renewing his contract.Christian Spampatti - Yet again he finished the season as our top goalscorer despite missing a couple of months half way through the season with an injury which meant he couldn't improve on last seasons goal tally.Fabio Hoxha - Our under 21 international Albainian striker who i brought in over the summer. He seemed to add a great deal of pace to our attack, despite only having a pace stat of 11, whilst also not being afraid of taking on the oppostion defenders. He was more effective in the first half of the season and played less with the arrival of Kyeremateng. Giovanni Kyeremateng - The other player i picked up in January. With Spampatti out injured for several months and not wanting to rely on Nohman, i felt i needed another striker. I choose well as he contributed 9 goals and 2 assists in the second half of the season. Some of his goals proved to be very important but he also had some really shocking performances which reduced his average rating.

Next Season
I am currently looking out for potential signings to improve the team for next season with several of my players out of contract at the end of this season. The wage budget hasn't gone up much really, from around 7.5k to 12.5k, especially when you consider that i already been a bit above last years wage budget already, hopefully though i can still improve my squad enough to compete. My aim is to obviously avoid relegation but i am hoping to be more in a mid table position so that i could possible push on for promotion/playoff spot the year after.

Edit: One thing that i have just noticed is that we must have a good fan base even if we are a very small club. We have an average attendance of just over 2000 people per game during the season just gone which puts us 1st in the leagues average attendance. Not bad considering when i signed up to this club it had the worst reputation in Serie C2.

It's great to read how everybody else is doing even if it is not going as well for some as it is for others. Keep up the good work everyone.

TanO - Good season, shame about the slump. Those Team Meeting results will be something to keep in mind.iacovone - Good luck with Novese. Funny that your stadium is called that, since there's also this Italian song about him.StellaF1 - Great season there, especially with the title being won in the 91st minute of the last match.

Initially was doing brilliant in the league and approaching the winter break having only lost one game and conceded 4 goals. However due to tiredness and stupidity on my part (shutting down pc whilst game still saving) the save got corrupted.
Thankfully FM seemed to have created a backup of the previous save point whilst it was saving...which sent me back to just before my previous update in the thread.

I'm continuing on but not doing quite as well, into November and I've lost 2 games already and conceded 6 goals and we don't seem to be playing as well as previously. Although I suppose I can't complain as we're still top

Key New Signings:Giuseppe Imburgia (D/WBL) - my first signing and one I'm pleased with. Should add strength and experience to the backline.

Roberto Biserni (DR/WBR/DM/MC) - on the other flank we have more experience and importantly a touch of versatility. Biserni operates best as a wing back but as age catches up to him I can see him moving into midfield.

Rok Bozic (DM/CM) - a fantastic name welcomes the half Slovenian, half Italian. He will literally be the "rock" of our midfield and I expect him to lead by example in there. He'll be the central CM of three.

Giorgio Natale (ST/AMC) - I'm really excited by this kid. Found him loitering in the free transfers as a 16 year old with promise. He'll be the trequartista in my midfield and will have the freedom to express himself. Youthful exuberance should never be doubted!

Antonio Montella (ST) - spent a fortune on loyalty fees to get him to agree to a move to Novese, but I have a feeling he'll be worth it. He looks very good for this level.

Riccardo Innocenti (ST) - joining Montella is the new captain of the club, Innocenti. He is a big brute of a target man and I'm hoping will add another dimension to our forward line.

All in all I signed 12 players all on free transfers. I have shipped out 13 with likely more to go. We'll have a thin squad so it's going to be vital to avoid injuries. If we do I'm hoping for a good season.

Julen Etxabeguren - I felt Neira needed a good partner so I loaned in Etxabeguren from Real Sociedad.

Noe Metzger - The big gamble. After finding him in the Aviron Bayonnais youth team and seeing scouts come back saying he could be good enough for the league above in the future I shelled out 120k on him.

The rest were youths in the free transfer list who I signed to develop and fill out the squad. Except Gabilondo who is going to be my first-choice leftback at 17.

LLR/iacovone - Yeah. It's odd. I tend to finish the season more strongly than I start. Not this time round. Unless I can pick up my form again that is.

Oh my trend is a poor run through the middle, generally due to injuries...currently have two strikers out, and I believe my top midfielder as well, I am fine at both ends...Hopefully you can turn it around PRDH and come out of the hole.

StellaF1 - Congrats on promotion, an exciting end to the season, to nick it in the last minutes.
Good updates iacovone and Romanista1994.

Last season we were poor after the winter break and it's the same again this season. Our wastefulness has been epic, scored an impressive 13 goals in 15 games since the break, with 5 games left, and the results include a 0-0 draw at the bottom two sides despite dominating. I know, before you say, it's my tactics, just trying to work out what it is.

Goals? I could lend you some...51 in 17 (3 per game), but we have conceded 27 which is why we are in a slump, we handed out some 5+ goal humpings early on in the season...I just want to figure out how to tighten the D up a bit, thinking it might be a case of needing a DM...

Drew the first match against Eibar after going 2-0 up. Danobeitia scored and created the other for Pennella, winning the Man of the Match award. Now to sort out my defence.

That's better Romanista, you cold even try orange as it's still a little funny on the eyes, but I don't know if it matches your kit enough.

I remember doing a World Cup update in my Savona AI Experiment (who remembers that?) and colour coding every nation. It took me ages and was the biggest waste of time ever. It looked horrific. Like a mosaic of florescent colors begging you to enter an epileptic fit. Dreadful.

As my earlier teasing suggests my Marbella save wasn't bringing me the excitement that a game on this challenge requires. i was struggling with injuries in a weak squad that was haemorraging money and i just couldn't get into the game. As a result i thought long and hard as to what to do next and i decided to go back to somewhere i knew well having had experience with them in FM10. The destination was Mannheim in Germany and the club was SV waldhof Mannheim.

The manager is once again Michael Dixon and Michael's aim is to make Mannheim the No. 1 team in Germany.

Second DivisionA season of exceeded expectations as we confounded the critics to finish 5th, well clear of our media prediction of 18th. However, we couldn't help wonder what might have been... It all started well as we got through the first 9 games unbeaten and established ourselves in the play-off positions early on. We then had a rough patch of only 1 win in our next 5 games before embarking on an other unbeaten run, this time a club record breaking 13 game one. That put us right in contention for 1st place in Group B and the automatic promotion spot. A defeat in our next match to Konyaspor, one of the highest rep teams in the division, seemed just a minor set-back as we bounced back with a win the following week. However, we then suffered a spectacular collapse, picking up just one point from our last 5 games... Injuries hit us hard at just the wrong time but we only have ourselves to blame. Our strikers stopped scoring and our defenders started to imitate John Terry in the wrong way, all of which saw us drop to 5th.Final Group B Table

Play-OffsWe drew Denizli Bld., who had finished 5th in Group A in the play-offs and at first we seemed to have got our form back. An early goal put us in the lead before Denizli hit us twice on the break. We showed the resilience that had been lacking in the last few league games to make it 2-2 by half-time with all to play for. We had the better of the second half but it all went wrong when we conceded a penalty with 15 minutes to go. We were then chasing the game and had the agony of seeing a shot blocked on the line in the 89th minute. As we made a final push in injury time, Denizli hit us on the break once more to win 4-2 and end our promotion dreams.Result

Turkish CupI wasn't too bothered about this competition but it was disappointing to go out so early, especially as our opponents, Alanyaspor, were to be relegated from Group A come the end of the season.

So, the season ended with a slight tinge of dissapointment as we couldn't make our good form last long enough. Still, I would have happily taken 5th place at the start of the season and we now have another season to build up the team and get rid of some of the deadweight in the squad ahead of another promotion push.

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The Squad: TransfersNearly all free transfers except for veteran DM Yüksel Sariyer, who was signed from an amateur Austrian club to whom we had to give a whopping 130TL compensation! The were some misjudged deals with a few players turning out to be not quite as good as the scouts had reported and others, like goalkeeper Kerem İnan, kicking up a fuss about their lack of playing time. Most of them were only signed on one-year deals though so they will soon be moving on. The successful deals can be seen in more detail below.Transfer Summary

The Squad: Key Players

Yüksel Sariyer (DM) - A strange discovery here as I found this guy playing amateur football in Austria despite having 13 caps to his name. After signing for a nominal fee, he quickly became a key player both due to his experience and his commanding performances. He offered cover to the defence and also played his part in attack with 12 assists. It was no coincidence that our two slumps in form came when he was out injured. At the end of the season, he was chosen as Supporters' Player of the Year. Alas, he is 33 now and so I need to start looking for a replacement.Gökhan Vuran (AMRLC) - Another Austrian-Turk who came in on a free. He was also a creative force with 10 assists as I deployed him on the right wing. That is not his natural position but the fact that he is left-footed enabled him to cut inside and wreak havoc on opposition full-backs.

Berkin Arslan (AMRLC) - We only had Berkin in the squad from January onwards but on the left wing he became what Gökhan was on the right. As a right-footed player, he too would cut inside and, despite not getting as many assists, he was one of our most consistent performers.

Ferdi Aksakal (ST) - Our most consistent goalscorer with 13 strikes. He is also 33 though and I have a feeling he will struggle to reproduce that form next season.

The Squad: Ones to WatchOnce I start getting decent youth players, I'll be posting about there careers in detail over in Neppo's Youth Player Project thread. Unfortunately, this year there were no prospects worth mentioning in the youth trials.

One youngster I signed who showed some promise was Sinan Bayer, a striker who can also play on the left wing. 5 goals was a decent return from a squad player and I will be looking to give him more game time next year.

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The Season Ahead...I have already gone through much of the pre-season and there will be plenty of new faces in the squad next season as I attempt to add more quality and depth to the squad. We really need a new right-back and some more youthful options in midfield and up front. I will be looking to at the very least make the play-offs again and possibly make an automatic promotion push. We'll see!

The league was fairly decent for us as I really thought we'd struggle down in the relegation zone. However I think the thing that swung it for us was the great start to the season where we picked up 6 wins and a draw from the first seven league games. The first half of the season saw us ground sharing with Osasuna (our parent club) while our ground was coberted to a 2,500 all seater stadium. We did christen our all seater with a 7-3 win when we got back in there. All in all this has been a good season even though we really dropped off at the end of the season.

If you use Goldenrod instead of that yellow, it should be visible and similar to your stripes

Am I understanding you both correctly that we can edit our team colours in the middle of a game. If that's allowed I'd definitely like to do it, because East Stirlingshire's away colours (blue on red like Barcelona's home kit) are almost unreadable to me and will surely drive me nuts. So if that's what you mean, and we're allowed to do it, how can it be done? A saved game editor?

Ironically, when I looked at Spain for this challenge I was thinking of Barakaldo, principally because of the colours, but then someone (maybe Romanista) indicated that they were going to choose them, so I went in another direction. Let's just say that if we're allowed to change the colours East Sirlingshire are in for an interesting design shift.

In 5th place with about 6-7 games to go, if it wasn't for my two strikers simultaneously getting red cards with + 4 game bans at the same time, I would have likely finished 4th and got into promotional playoff. Overall the revamp of the squad worked, and the team got much younger. Signing almost entirely free transfers with a couple in the 50k range, the young team was a pleasant surprise. And with an average age of 18, and an average wage of 725 in the league where average is 1.4k, this was an accomplishment. Sticking with the plan of developing young players while upgrading my talent as a whole and staying financially viable with low (3 euro) ticket prices and attendance (average 2k), the season was a success. I continued to sell a couple young players who did not fit into my plan for moderate profits. The greatest success, however, was upgrading the Russian young talent, as even though it was still weak, I found players with good attributes for the key positions mainly on free transfers- which were much improved over the garbage I put out last year.

As the season goal from both the board and my perspective was to avoid relegation, a top half finish was an achievement and I am looking forward to next year. I added a Parent Club (Anji) and a Feeder club as well to boost the infrastructure.

My striker duo who would alternate or sub each other out - Tuigiano and Sugak.
My young Nigerian prospect second year - Okoro - may be shopping him
Left wing back is looking good - Kislichenko his value is rising and so is his salary - might have to sell him

I am looking forward to getting to the premier division so I can play more foreigners! There are lots of solid Ukrainians, Belarussians, Azeri's, etc who I could use to make myself stronger but most decent Russians won't come to my team or cost at least 250k+ (too much).

Football Manager isn't life or death ... It's far more important than that!

Posts

2,501

Just about caught up on the updates i'd missed ... DodgeeD unlucky in the playoffs and i spot a famillier name in your report Kerem İnan was my first choice Keeper last year and here was me raving about how losing him to injury nearly ruined my season and he wasnt good for you!

Am I understanding you both correctly that we can edit our team colours in the middle of a game. If that's allowed I'd definitely like to do it, because East Stirlingshire's away colours (blue on red like Barcelona's home kit) are almost unreadable to me and will surely drive me nuts. So if that's what you mean, and we're allowed to do it, how can it be done? A saved game editor?

Ironically, when I looked at Spain for this challenge I was thinking of Barakaldo, principally because of the colours, but then someone (maybe Romanista) indicated that they were going to choose them, so I went in another direction. Let's just say that if we're allowed to change the colours East Sirlingshire are in for an interesting design shift.

No, you can't change club colours mid-save. They were referring to Romanista's post above with the colours for Barakaldo in the title.

LLR - I might, might, be following your route of starting well, trailing off in the middle and picking up again at the end. I'm not saying anything for fear of invoking the curse. But, I *might* have picked up.

Don't I feel stupid now. I was so overcome with excitement at the thought of changing my side's strip to baby pink I didn't think it through. I assumed Brklo was the name of a team from one of the slavic eastern european countries. Duh!

We're currently 10 games in and have a record of 5/2/3 and a goal difference of +7

So I'm delighted to see us sitting 7th. We've yet to be outclassed and have won a couple on the road - always the sign of a good team.

I'm pleased that we also unlocked the Steam achievement "Beating Expectations" which is 90% of board confidence in overall competitions. Thanks in no small part to our run to the Serie C Cup 2nd Round. We have a tough away game at Viareggio but we seem strong away.

Early on I realised we had a decent side - with a thumping 8-0 victory on opening day. Three draws followed, then back to back wins. Frustratingly at the time, we kept seeming to draw plenty of games, which left us trailing the promotion pack - although we suffered only 4 defeats before the Christmas break.

It was then that I decided to have a tinker with my tactics . I abandoned my 4-2-2-2 system, in favour of moving one of the DMs into the CM position - in the hope that the trade off in defensive solidity would mean we would be able to go for more wins, even if we did lose some more games.

But that didn't happen at all. 5 games after the winter break and we had already lost as many games as the whole of the first 20 or so games. After winning our first game after the Xmas break - we then went without a win until 20th April - three games from the end of the season.

And so - with 2 wins, 5 draws and 9 defeats after the winter break - I think it was safe to say we faded.

This left us finishing up in 14th in the table - which was respectable enough in that we survived.

Giorgio Natale - remember the name. Still just 16, he's bagged his first goal to set the record as our youngest ever goalscorer. More importantly it was in a 3-0 away win at Viareggio in the Serie C Cup 2nd Round. So we're into the 2nd Group Stage

To start the 3rd season, I am on amazing run of 7 games with conceding. Looks like Metallurg-Kuzbass may final get promoted. Ironically even though I have upgraded talent, the media predicted me to finish dead last at 20th.

I don't know why my club rep keeps dropping. I am in 3rd at the winter break, and now dropped to half a star! By far the lowest in the division and amongst the worst in Russia. Yet I keep winning. I am like 8-1 underdogs no matter who I play. Seems like a bug.

My star striker just got released classed to the Premier Division in the january transfer window, but 500k when I make almost no money is ok I guess.

Halfway through the season and Città di Pontedera is 5 points clear at the top! We have by far the best goaldifference in the league and anything but a playoff-spot in may would be a disaster! Promotion would be good as we are in debt (consoritum owner took out a loan for some reason) and wages are a bit out of control!

It says my reputation is tarnished because of "performances on the pitch." Even though a team that was pre-season 20th is now second with 3 games to go, fans are unhappy about my style of play.

STUPID!!!!

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Ooo, this makes me want to play in Italy. What style of play is getting them so het up? Playing a more direct game? In the lower leagues that's always seemed to me to be a great equaliser, but maybe in Italy that doesn't wash.

I have no idea what my reputation is, although I'm a bit worried by the top Scottish teams screwing the pooch in Europe. In a couple of seasons I'm going to want one of those qualification places that they seem so keen to toss away, not to mention the better players that will come with an enhanced league reputation.

Haha this! My team has scored 64 goals in 20 games so far this season, but we are still in trouble as we have conceded 36...Thats 3.2-1.8 as an average score, with pretty much 5 goals scored in every game...my defence needs some real strengthening according to the stats....

Table ~ Graph(Predicted 8th/16, sacked at 14th)
Well I certainly ate my words, didn't I? I improved every area and felt genuinely sure of top 3 at least... how wrong I was. Won 2 out of 11... the most annoying thing about it is that we were never outclassed, it was always 1-0, 2-1 losses. Takes the pish really.

Portuguese Cup: (Lost in 1st round)
Lost to non-league opposition at home. Woeful

:/ Never been sacked before! I am now holidaying to the end of the year and am starting again in Portugal. I will carry on in the save game.

mafino - That's the attitude. last year in Dafuge's challenge i was the only person who was sacked, holidayed to the next summer (technically I resigned because I'd relegated my team, but obviously i would have been sacked) and then was offered a job with a second (frsshly promoted) club, which i achieved the challenge with.

But you'll have something I never had; (provided Machico stay up - thanks to the groundwork of your visionary signings of course), the opportunity to thrash the ungrateful, short-sighted, stupid logo-ed, underachieving, stingy, obsolete pondscum of mediocrity next season.

mafino - That's the attitude. last year in Dafuge's challenge i was the only person who was sacked, holidayed to the next summer (technically I resigned because I'd relegated my team, but obviously i would have been sacked) and then was offered a job with a second (frsshly promoted) club, which i achieved the challenge with.

But you'll have something I never had; (provided Machico stay up - thanks to the groundwork of your visionary signings of course), the opportunity to thrash the ungrateful, short-sighted, stupid logo-ed, underachieving, stingy, obsolete pondscum of mediocrity next season.

Machico managed to stay up by two points, so I'm going to hold responsibility because I signed 3 players and left before they arrived I don't really want to go to any other country and no point starting again so! I am now the proud manager of CSD Câmara de Lobos, about 10 miles from Machico on Madeira Island, and promoted to the same division as Machico. I've not been to that part of the island so not comfortable like before. Smaller wage but media already predicts them to stay up before I've tinkered so I'm looking forward to the coming season. Thanks for the motivation pal (Y)

The first money came through the doors as overpaid mediocre right-winger Abilio left and Lucas (previous top scorer who had unfortunate wage increases built into his contract) departed.

In came a swathe of exciting young Brazilians (who you'll see later) and some decent enough pros. I thought I improved the squad, a prognosis which initially seemed foolish as I watched my young charges humiliated three times in the League Cup group phases.

Well, an unusual season. As I said above, I came out of the blocks like a rocket. Only losing two games in my first 12. This had put me well and truly in the early season frame at the top of the table. However, unfortunately my mid-table season was awful. A couple of changes (I don't know how much difference they really made, but I'm claiming it!) later though, and we were back on form. It was insanely close between 2nd and 8th, with only a handful of points separating everyone. I hit for at the right time again and rose to second (heralding automatic promotion) with the final game to come.

Playing 11th it was a game I should win, and with only a draw necessary I was feeling reasonably confident. Sitting at 0-0 at half time with my nearest rivales also drawing this confidence grew. However, it wasn't to be that easy. Within moments of each other I conceded, and my rivals scored. Suddenly I was facing heartbreak and, more importantly, another season in this league. Imagine the relief then when, in a few mad moments, my opposition had a man sent off and then I scored. With results as they stood I would go up based on results between teams (I like that rule). Fortunately my rivals, perhaps after word of my equaliser filtered through as the fans sat there, radios strapped to their ears, fell away resulting in a comfortable two point gap and Lusitania Acores preparing for the big time.

Cup

Moderate progression. The League Cup was an unmitigated disaster (I lost all three games in the initial group stage, it didn't give me much hope for the rest of the season). I did however make it to the Fourth Round of the Taca de Portugal. A record for me, hope was also raised by the fact that a Second League side made it all the way to the final. Hopefully the gap isn't too big.

Firat Sasmaz - One of the stars of the season, provided a huge number of assists from the left wing. His tally of 20 assists in the league was the highest of the season and also a new league record.

Robson - Went from starter to utility midfielder. By no means embarrassed himself.

Claudio - Robson's replacement (another Brazilian lad brought in during pre-season), he has an exciting future and a great eye for a pass.

Forwards

Mika Korkeakunnas - Relegated to back up this year. I can't really see a place for the Finn next year.

Henrique - The player of the season (mine at least) relentless scoring up front. He has been playing the Pastore/Kresic/Zubillaga role in my preferred formation, long term readers will know how this position often yields my favourite players. This guy could be one to add to the list. Another of the exciting Brazilians! He was also the league's top scorer this season and also won goal of the year. With this little beauty which clinched a late season win.

Well done Henrique!

Krasimir Kirilov - Disappointing season for the player I thought could put pressure on the Brazilians. He only player when injuries happened, and even then not especially well.

Alex - Yup, you guessed it, another Brazilian. Henrique's partner. Despite playing the, in theory, more advanced role he wasn't as prolific as Henrique. Still, did well, picked up some important goals.

Otoniel Robelto - This lad has been knocking around for a while as a potentially good youth player, I'm not sure he'll make it so I thought I should mention him now to acknowledge his existence somewhere!

Aims For Last Season

1/ Consolidate - Achieved, and then some!

Aims For Next Season

1/ Survive

Story So Far...

Code:

Season League Position Achievements
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2012/13 Second Division - South 12th Avoided Relegation (just)
2013/14 Second Division - South 1st Promoted!
2014/15 Second League 14th Avoided Relegation
2015/16 Second League 2nd Promoted!

Incredibly brief update but we're looking good in the league, sitting 3rd. Progress has been steady.

Star man has been my predicted star of the season Antonio Montella. He has just missed 3 games to suspension annoyingly.

We managed to ride a storm of injuries reasonably well actually. November was our toughest month, as you can see here but overall we show good character on the back of poor runs of form which is pleasing.

We'll need to maintain our form in the 2nd half of the season and I expect this to be particularly tough as expectations have risen. We're in quite a bit of debt now as well (-£150k) - hope it doesn't restrict me too much next summer.

:/ Never been sacked before! I am now holidaying to the end of the year and am starting again in Portugal. I will carry on in the save game.

I was sacked with Machico in FM11, it was really tough, I moved on with the same thing into another season and pulled up Penalva Castelo (Machico thumped me with my own players the next season lol)...Good luck with Lobos

I was sacked with Machico in FM11, it was really tough, I moved on with the same thing into another season and pulled up Penalva Castelo (Machico thumped me with my own players the next season lol)...Good luck with Lobos

A very nice season there PRDH, will give a more indepth read tonight after work.

Yeah Charles the only good thing is you can sign them for long periods, but after they hit 23 its done, it was something that sucked I found in Turkey when I played there for a little bit last year....